Misguided Truths: Part One (4 page)

“Y-y-yeah. Yes. Everything’s fine.” I glance back to Brandon and realize that he’s still waiting for me to answer him.

“So, what do you say?” The uncertainty in his eyes and the anxiousness within his voice are definitely not something I was expecting to hear or see, especially from him.

“Um … sorry.” I answer and watch as a frown forms over his lips. “I don’t think so, Brandon.” He rakes a hand through his hair again
, and the brightness that was showing in his eyes just a few seconds ago has completely vanished. He nods at the two of us, then turns around and begins to slowly walk away, with his shoulders now slouching down in defeat.

I walk past
Rachael and head straight up to the first floor without saying another word. I know that I’ve made the right decision. I don’t fool around. He does. It wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t work.

He looked upset, though it could just be because his ego is feeling slightly deflated. Convincing myself of this, I decide to banish all thoughts of this evening from my mind and try and get some sleep.

“I’ll just have a latte, please,” I smile at the waitress and place the menu back down on the counter.

Naomi insisted that we meet up for breakfast, though I’ve never really had an overly large appetite first thing in the morning. We don’t usually meet so early on a Sunday, but I think the reason she messaged me so late last night about spending the morning together was because she’s dying to know how ‘the date,’ as she so puts it, went with Brandon last night.

After I’d walked away from him at the party on Friday, I filled her in on why I wanted to head home earlier than we’d planned
, and what I’d seen in the bathroom. Once I’d told her about Brandon and Heather, she understood why I wasn’t so keen to stay. We’re best friends and tell each other everything.

“Let’s grab a table,” she says, pointing over to one of the booths by the window. I place my purse on the seat beside me and rest my elbows on the table, noticing the curiosity beaming in her eyes. “Well?”

“Well what?” I answer her question with one of my own. She hates it when I do this, but it’s quite entertaining to watch.

She shakes her head and rolls the sleeves of her g
reen sweater midway up her arms, “You know what I’m asking, Holly! How was your ‘date’?” She raises her brow, and a mischievous grin forms over her mouth. “So, was he the gentleman that he so adamantly claims to be?”

My stomach becomes heavy when I think back to last night. I lean back in my seat and gaze out of the window. I hardly managed to get any sleep when I got home. All I could think about was how he looked before he walked away from me. That wasn’t the only thing, though. I’ve kissed guys before, of course I have, but kissing Brandon? Well, I liked it.

A lot.

“Holly? Earth to Holly!” I can hear her, but I really don’t know what to tell her. “He overstepped the boundaries, right? I knew he would. Typical guy. …” Her voice holds a bored tone as the waitress places our order number down on the table
, before passing me my coffee.

I glance ove
r to her and shrug my shoulders, “Actually, he didn’t.” She throws me a look of disbelief that soon changes to a more questioning one. “He asked me to go out with him again … but, I said no.”

“Are you serious?” she sounds intrigued and sits forward some more. “He asked you to go out again?” I nod at her question and give her a small smile. “W
ell, what did he do when you told him no?”

“He went home,
” I answer, tipping the sweetener into my mug as the bell above the entrance door begins to chime. I lift my gaze, and that’s when I see him walking through with Neil and Ryan.
I don’t believe this
.

“That’s it? Well, it’s hardly the date of a lifetime. It actually sounds kinda boring—” I reach over and grab Naomi’s hand to gain her attention. I don’t need this right now. It’s bad enough that I’m seeing him so soon afterwards, but I don’t want him to hear our conversation
, too. She narrows her eyes on me and then turns in her seat. “Oh. Well … this could be awkward.” She adds, while widening her eyes and grimacing slightly.

I watch him walk over to the counter behind Neil and Ryan, who both appear to be excited about something. Brandon picks up a menu, and although I try, I can’t seem to be able to bring my eyes away from him. I’ve already admitted that I find him attractive, but when he’s wearing a black leather jacket over a white tee with faded blue pants …
wow.

“You’ve got a little drool just on your chin there,” Naomi laughs lightly and shakes her head again at me. Allowing my eyes to rest on the lukewarm latte in front of me, I pick up the spoon from the table and begin stirring it around. “Ah, I get it. You wanted to say yes.”

I raise my head and nod once, my eyes landing back over on the counter. Neil spots us and waves, drawing both Brandon and Ryan’s attention over on us at the same time. Brandon looks over, and although he’s a few feet away, I notice that his face drops slightly. After a couple of seconds, he smiles briefly and then turns back away.

Sitting straighter in my seat, I clear my throat, “What do you want to do today?” I ask Naomi, trying not to show that I’m affected by him being here. Though, I think it might be
a little too late for that.

“Hey girls!” Ryan pulls up a chair
, turns it around, and sits down on it, back to front. He’s wearing a huge grin as he glances between the two of us.

“You’re very chirpy for so early on a Sunday,” Naomi says. “What gives?” Neil a
nd Brandon walk over behind him with their bottles of soda in hand, and Neil takes a seat beside Naomi. Brandon stays standing, and when I peek up from my coffee, I see Naomi throwing me a glare. 

I move closer to the window to give Brandon some space to sit down, and notice from the corner of my eye that he hesitates before taking a seat beside me.

“We’re still buzzing from last night,” Ryan answers her with a wink. “There was a major gig on over in Seattle. It was fucking huge!”

“Who played?” she asks. She’s into her music
, too, so him telling her this seems to have peeked her interest. They begin talking away about the different acts that performed on the main stage. Movement from underneath the table catches my attention, and I see Brandon’s leg jiggling almost uncontrollably.

The same conversation continues for at least another fifteen minutes
, and not once have I been able to speak to Brandon about last night, or even managed to exchange one word with him.

“What about you guys? It must have been a pretty special date if big guy over here decided to bail on us!”

Thank fully the waitress arrives with the guys food order and interrupts Ryan’s inquisition.

I risk a quick glance at Brandon. He’s staring at the table and
entwining his hands in his lap, “You were supposed to be going to the gig?” I lean over to him and ask quietly.

“Forget about it,” his voice is a soft whisper and he continues to stare right ahead of him. “It’s not a big deal.” His smile is tight when he finally faces me, sorrowful even.

He ditched a huge gig so he could take me out on a date? Now I feel really bad, “Listen—“

“I’m gonna head out. I’ve gotta meet Corey and the guys over at my place for practice in a little while,” he says as he stands, tapping Ryan and Neil on the shoulder a couple of times as they say their goodbyes. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

As he leaves they shrug their shoulders at each other, and Neil throws me a questioning glance. When Brandon reaches the door, he looks over his shoulder and directly at me, though that’s all he does. He pauses for a brief moment and lets out a deep breath before making his way out onto the sidewalk.

“How was the meal?” Ryan asks, leaning forward and grabbing a knife and fork from the cutlery stand.

I lift my head as I question him, “The meal?”

“Yeah, with Brandon.” Does he mean the hotdog stand? “When we stopped by yesterday he told us that he’d made reservations at Rafael’s.” He’s speaking slowly as though he thinks I’ve gone insane or something.

“Oh, right …” Naomi and I exchange glances. At least I’m not the only one who’s confused right now. “It was … nice, yeah.” I tuck the loose strand of hair behind my ear and hope they don’t notice that I have no idea what they’re talking about.

“Holly, you alright?” Neil asks this time. “You look completely lost in thought over there.” I nod a yes as my answer
, and silently thank Naomi for changing the subject back onto the headlining acts at the gig.

He took me to the funfair, so why would he tell his friends that he was taking me to Rafael’s for dinner?

Through pure fucking frustration, I throw the notepad down on the garage floor, followed closely by the pen I’d been using to write down some lyrics.

“Chill out, man. We’ll get there,” Corey takes a seat on one of the fold out chairs and leans his guitar up against the workshop table beside him. “It was always gonna take us a little time to get used to playing together.”

He’s right, but this isn’t what’s causing me to be in such a shit mood. I’m exhausted. Last night was the first Saturday that I’ve made it home before midnight in a long time, yet I actually feel a whole lot worse for arriving home early. I think I finally managed to catch some sleep at around four, maybe even five.

Yeah, you guessed it. Holly. Holly was playing on my mind when I got home and it made it impossible for me to switch off. I thought the date went well. But, I guess I was wrong. She kissed me back. It wasn’t as though I made her do it. I could tell she wanted to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss her. I thought she would agree to go out with me again. And, not only that.
I felt something.

See, usually when I’m with a girl, it’s fun while we fool around but I’m happy to walk away afterwards. But with Holly, I didn’t want to stop. I could’ve happily stayed on the sidewalk for the whole night kissing her if I was only given half the chance.

One minute I had her wrapped in my arms, and the next? The next she was bolting through her front yard like she wasn’t able to get away from me fast enough. I kept my hands to myself. I was on my best behavior. My hands stayed firmly on her waist the whole time. I didn’t even go for her breasts once. If you know me at all, then you’ll know that not having attempted to or having touched her breasts was a huge achievement for me to accomplish. And, yeah. I was pretty stoked with myself about this.

“Let’s take a break,” Sam calls over from behind the drums. “What do you say we meet back here at three?”

“Yeah, sure,” I answer as he packs his drumsticks back away in his music bag. “I’ll see if I can work on a few lyrics for that last piece before you get back.”

Sam, Corey, and Gaz
wave as they head out and I go to grab the notepad and pen back up from the floor. I’ve really gotta get a few words down. The sooner we can get a few songs together, the sooner we can try and get ourselves into a few bars and clubs to perform.

Me and the guys have literally only played together twice, this being the second time. I used to
be in a band with Neil and Rye, but seeing as though they’ve decided to take some time out from studying, so they can travel later in the year together, I’m having to start out afresh.

Just last week I held auditions for a drummer, guitarist
, and bass player. Luckily, I think I managed to get the best guys from our music class on board. We play mainly indie rock and I write my own material. I play the guitar some of the time, though mainly stick with the mic.

My plans are simple. Get the band going and start gigging around the city, then when we get really good, play further afield. My m
om and dad have already said they think that I’m wasting my time on music, but I disagree. They’ve always said that I’ve been a disappointment to them because I opted to study music over law, or whatever it was they had in mind for me the last time we actually sat down for dinner together. As you can probably figure out, we’re not exactly a close family. We never really have been. I think I actually talk to my aunt and uncle in Florida more than I do my own parents.

“Knock, knock.”

I immediately look over to the garage door the guy’s left half open when I hear her voice. “Holly?” Slowly standing up from my seat, I place the pen and notepad back down and cautiously walk over to her.

She takes
a small step inside and smiles, “Um … are you busy?”

I shake my head and run my hand through my hair as I near her. She looks uncertain about something. But then, I’m not totall
y sure why she’s even come here, “What’s up?”
Shit.
Why are my hands getting all sweaty?

She glances fully around the room before her eyes land back on me
, and she’s fiddling with the zipper on her jacket as she takes a step in my direction.

We stand in an uncomfortable sile
nce for at least twenty seconds, “Do you want a soda or somethi—?” Before I get a chance to finish asking, she’s already stepped forward, and in the next instant, I feel her lips on mine.

Is this for real?

She’s pressing her mouth hard against mine and clutching onto my cheeks firmly with her fingers. Before I even have a chance to reciprocate, she steps back and inhales a sharp breath. Her eyes have widened, and she’s watching me with what looks to be anxiety filling her eyes.

“Huh …” I clear my throat as she continues to stare at me. “What was that for?” I ask, not knowing what else to do or say. I lift my hand up to my mouth and touch where her lips were on mine. She completely caught me off guard just now.

“You’re really sweet,” her voice is shaky as she answers me. “Instead of asking me to go and change, you changed where we went on our date instead, and you didn’t cancel your plans with me so you could go to the gig in Seattle, or …”

“You kissed me because you think I’m sweet?”

She nods and begins to fiddle with her zipper again, “Yeah.” Her cheeks are turning a deep shade of pink, and I notice that she keeps breaking her eye contact with me.

“Y’know, there was this one time when I rescued some kids kitten from a tree,” I say, my voice purposely a little deeper now and I take a step closer to her. “I didn’t use a ladder or anything. Yeah. Completely unaided.” I add in more of a hoarse whisper, running my fingers lightly through the soft tendrils of the blonde hair that’s hanging down by the side of her face. “Some would say that was a sweet thing to do …”

She smiles and finally the uncomfortable atmosphere that was surrounding us begins to subside, “Don’t push it.”

“It was worth a shot!” I laugh lightly and shrug my shoulders. “I’m gonna go grab a soda. You want one?”

She shakes her head and steps towards the garage doorway, “No, I’d better get going. Rachael’s waiting in the car.”

I nod and place my hands in my pants pockets, “Right.”

“Right,” she echoes my word, and I notice her taking another deep breath. “Um … Brandon?” I hear her call after me as I make my way towards the steps that lead up to the main part of the house.

“Yeah?” I turn around when I’m midway up the stairs.

“If the offer still stands … um … I mean, do you wanna maybe go out some time … with me?” The nervousness in her voice is evident.

Whoa!
Did Holly just ask me to go on a date with her? Well, I’ll be damned. Since she’s the reason for my lack of sleep and the pissed mood I’ve been in ever since I dropped her home last night, I take a couple of moments before answering her. “Yeah …” I say, and shrug my shoulders casually. “Maybe …” And without saying anything else, I head into the house and close the main door behind me.